Chapter 127: Temporal Fluctuation·Dual Crisis

The tiles kept falling, Zhao Jianguo rolled over and shielded the Shuang Baotai in his arms, his back "Thud" hitting a wooden cabinet at the wall corner, shaking his teeth to a sour ache. The muffled sound overhead sounded like someone dragging a metal box on the roof, one after another, pressing down until one could barely breathe.

He had just fled the church, his feet still unsteady, and this Siheyuan already didn't recognize him.

"Dad! Wa—" Xiao Bao cried, digging into his arms, his little face flushed.

Zhao Jianguo had no time to soothe them, snatched the old cotton blanket by the kang and draped it over the two children, then looked up to see a blue light rising in the Courtyard, rippling like water from a crack in the ground, turning the window paper a pale blue.

"System!" his heart tightened, he fumbled for the Terminal in his pocket; as soon as he pulled it out, the Screen lit up by itself, a line of red text sprang up: "Cross‑System Resonance Protocol activated."

The next second, his wrist burned sharply, as if seared with a branding iron. He looked down; a fine red line surfaced under his skin, crawling along the veins toward his heart. On the other side, Chen Jianguo had the same thing, and between them it seemed an invisible thread was pulling, taut as a string.

"Life‑value sharing activated, deducting one percent per second," the system reported coldly.

"Who let you connect? Disconnect! Quickly disconnect!" Zhao Jianguo hammered the Terminal, but the interface froze, as if someone had locked the Permission from outside.

Chen Jianguo leaned against the western house doorframe, blood at the corner of his mouth, his whole body trembling, yet he grinned: "Your shouting is useless… This is a high‑level command; right now, we're like a grasshopper on a rope."

"Are you crazy? Still laughing?" Zhao Jianguo glared at him, "Your life is almost gone, and you're still dreaming about the Go Home at this point?"

"I'm not dreaming," Chen Jianguo raised his hand to wipe his mouth, blood smeared half his palm, "I really should go back. You say this body can't withstand the system's erosion, but you must know, over there I never lived at all."

Zhao Jianguo was stunned.

Before he could finish, a "Boom—" cracked from the sky, not thunder but a machine's humming. A shadow darkened at the Courtyard Gate, and the thuds of three people landing sounded almost simultaneously, shaking the mud ground.

In gray‑black combat gear, their visors reflecting light, the leader held a silver‑gray disc whose edge flashed a steady green light. He stepped forward, his voice transmitted through the mask, flat as a broadcast: "Experiment terminated. Disconnect immediately, or execute purge."

Zhao Jianguo looked up at them, his mind racing: no unit in the capital fields such gear. And the disc, weightless in hand, yet the surrounding air was pressed downwards.

"We weren't conducting an experiment!" he raised his hand, "We were just at home with the kids; what do you think you're doing storming in?"

The other side ignored him, staring at Chen Jianguo, tone unchanged: "SH-0973, confirm identity."

Chen Jianguo suddenly straightened his back, the madness in his face vanished, replaced by an almost reverent calm. He staggered forward two steps, raised his hand, revealing the red ring on his wrist: "Designation SH-0973, East China Time‑Space Surveillance Unit observer, requesting return to original sequence."

Zhao Jianguo nearly sprang up: "Since when did you become an observer? Yesterday you said you were a Steel Rolling Factory technician!"

"All are identities," Chen Jianguo looked back at him, his gaze eerily vacant, "Just like you, Zhao Jianguo—your ID is fake, your household registration patched, even your name can be changed—but the system recognizes you, so you have to pay the price."

Zhao Jianguo forced a bitter laugh: "So now you want to return to your roots? When they take you away, I lose one percent of my life each second—do you care?"

"I will," Chen Jianguo nodded, "but I can only accompany you up to here."

As soon as the words fell, the ground jolted violently, the blue fissure "Screech!" widened twice, a hot wind surged from below, whipping the clothes tight against the body. The Terminal suddenly screamed: "Warning! Multiversal temporal wave overlap! Correction force overload!"

Everyone froze.

The Special Forces Captain raised his hand and pressed the ear‑side device, seemingly receiving a command, but before he could speak, the blue brick beneath his foot "Crack!" exploded open, and blue light crawled up his combat boot through the fissure.

"Stabilizer failure!" the man on the right growled.

"Impossible, output power normal—"

"It's not a machine issue," Zhao Jianguo stared at the fissure, voice tight, "It's the fissure itself that wants to split."

Chen Jianguo tilted his head back, laughing like a fool: "You thought you were here to catch violators? Wrong. You're here to collect corpses."

"Shut up!" the Special Forces Captain raised his hand to press the button at the center of the disc.

Zhao Jianguo reacted faster, spun and lunged toward Su Qing holding the child, shoving the two kids into her arms: "Get inside quickly! Don't come out!"

Su Qing's face turned pale, retreating with the child; as the door closed, the wind in the Courtyard suddenly stopped.

It was terrifyingly quiet.

Then, Chen Jianguo began to sing.

The tune was bizarre, sounding like an old factory broadcast labor song, though none of the lyrics were understandable. He sang while walking forward, his foot on the edge of the fissure, blue light climbing up his pant leg.

Zhao Jianguo tried to pull him, but an invisible force shoved him, sending him crashing into the Wall Base.

"What are you doing? Stop!" he shouted.

"I'm rebooting the protocol," Chen Jianguo turned his head back, his eyes completely white, "They won't let us leave, so I force them to act. Once forced purge triggers, the data will reverse, and then—"

"Then you'll die too!"

"Die?" Chen Jianguo grinned, "I've already died once."

The Special Forces Captain finally pressed the button, the disc "Buzz—" emitted a bright beam that surged straight at Chen Jianguo. Yet the moment the beam was about to strike, the fissure erupted a burst of blue flame, ricocheting the entire beam back.

The shockwave toppled a corner of the Courtyard wall; Zhao Jianguo raised his hand to shield his face, feeling shards scrape his forehead, warm blood trickling down his browbone.

The Terminal kept counting: "Life‑value remaining 93%… 92%…"

He wiped his face, staring at Chen Jianguo's silhouette.

He stood in the center of the blue light, as if nailed, his body trembling slightly, still humming that odd tune. Meanwhile, the three Special Forces operatives began to retreat, their movements so orderly they seemed rehearsed.

"What are you afraid of?" Zhao Jianguo asked hoarsely, "He's about to fall apart, and you're still scared?"

No one answered.

Only wind rose from the ground, carrying the smell of rusted iron and burnt Electric Wire.

Zhao Jianguo braced against the wall and stood, stepping toward the center. With each step, the red scar on his wrist burned a little more, his heartbeat syncing with the system's countdown, thudding against his ribs.

"Chen Jianguo!" he shouted, "If you want to go, I can't stop you. But what does binding me mean? If you really want to Go Home, take me out!"

"Can't take it out… From the moment you caught me, we've been bound together. If they clear you, I must stay; if they clear me, you won't survive either."

"So? Mutual destruction?"

"No," Chen Jianguo shook his head, "It's a reboot."

Zhao Jianguo was about to curse when the ground violently shook, harsher than ever before. The last row of roof tiles "Crash—" collapsed entirely, raining dust onto the ground. The sky, at some unknown moment, gathered dark clouds pressing low, with strands of blue lightning flickering through, like broken neon signs.

The Special Forces Captain finally spoke, his voice tinged with panic: "Immediate evacuation! Signal Source out of control! Repeat, immediate evacuation!"

The three quickly retreated, their figures flashing, vanishing into thin air along with the silver disc, leaving no trace.

Zhao Jianguo stood frozen, his arms empty, the child gone, the helper fled, leaving only himself and a near‑mad Chen Jianguo, standing in the crumbling Courtyard.

"Look," Chen Jianguo spread his arms as if embracing something, "They've all run away. Only we remain, and this broken world."

Zhao Jianguo looked down at the Terminal, the number jumping to "87%".

He gritted his teeth, stepping toward Chen Jianguo.

"If you want to go crazy, I'll go crazy with you." he said, "But you think you can run away alone? No way."

Chen Jianguo looked at him, then suddenly laughed out loud.

The laughter hadn't faded when the ground crack suddenly widened, blue light shot up into the sky, and the entire Siheyuan seemed to be gripped by a giant hand, shaking violently.

Zhao Jianguo stood still, his hand gripping the Terminal tightly, knuckles turning white.

The blue light shone on his face, revealing a clear bloodstain.